On my way home from work last night, I stopped by Best Buy and picked up a copy of Jade Empire. I had it stuck in my head that I would be getting it yesterday as a gratuity item for the usability research at Microsoft. However, since that wasn’t the case, I just had to buy a copy for myself.
The first thing you see after popping the game in the Xbox is a short gallery of character paintings. I thought that was a nice deviation from the standard company logos (which show up after the gallery images). It’s a much smoother transition into the game than your normal loud music and flashy logos.
Starting the game is pretty simple. Pick a character, customize it if you like, and jump right into the story. I didn’t bother reading the manual (who reads manuals?), so I had no idea what any of the controls did. Luckily, a good chunk of the introduction is devoted to training you with the basic skills needed to survive in the game.
General gameplay is relatively fluid and easy to understand. On-screen hints popup whenever there is an interactive item or person. When you interact with objects and people, the scene is presented in widescreen mode with subtitles. This, combined with the not quite exact lip sync of the characters, really gives you the feeling that you are in a martial arts film. There are even characters who speak in an “old tongue”, so the subtitles really fit in well.
The combat system takes a bit of getting used to, but it makes sense after a few battles. The free-moving camera makes it very easy to find good angles to view the fight. There aren’t many button combos required to attack your opponents. And there are small status indicators above each opponent’s head to help you keep tabs on everyone’s life levels.
The parts that were most difficult for me was learning to switch targets and changing fighting styles during a fight. By default, you’re locked to one target, and you must press the left or right trigger to switch targets. There is also a free targeting mode that allows you just attack in all directions. That’s still an odd thing for me, but I can see how that would be useful.
Changing fighting styles is also a new thing for me. The direction pad allows you to choose from up to four different styles. Since weapons drain you of focus energy, you have to be careful of how often you use them. Most of the time you want to stick with hand-to-hand styles and then use weapons for addition range/damage/etc. This is akin to switching weapons, but it’s just an odd feeling using the directional pad to make the change.
As far as story goes, I’m enjoying it so far. Instead of just sitting back and watching cinematics, your character actually plays an active role in the dialog. You can ask questions, choose from different types of responses, and initiate dialog with most characters. The neat thing is which questions and responses you choose determine how the NPCs will respond to you. You can be courteous and friendly or arrogant and demanding. How you interact with characters has a bearing on your character’s development in the game and whether you travel the Way of the Open Palm or the Way of the Closed Fist.
Jade Empire is the only RPG that I have played in a long time. Your character gains experience points and levels. He or she develops various skills and abilities based on how you assign your level points. You can purchase training and equipment. It’s pretty much a full-blown RPG, but it’s not set in your typical medieval world (which is definitely a huge plus for me), so it doesn’t really feel like an RPG.
I’m only 3 hours into it so far, and I really like it. I can definitely see myself spending most of this weekend plastered on the couch playing this game. Looks like another pizza and beer weekend for me.
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